My internship at Frost and Sullivan India -By Kamal Jassal from Department of Management Studies, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad

I have always been an auto enthusiast. Since a young age, I have been interested in cars, bikes, trucks, anything with wheels or tracks. My Bachelor’s projects were all about Automobiles and so are my YouTube recommendations. I was among the unlucky ones for losing my previous internship offer to COVID-19. But I was dead set for an internship in the auto sector despite all odds. I was referred for this role by an acquaintance. The team at Frost and Sullivan India was eagerly looking for an Automobile sector enthusiast to join their internship program.

The initial HR round interview briefed about the new norms of COVID-19, and what to expect as an intern. Since I had a deep passion for the field and the resume was screaming “hire me” with hobby projects in the Auto domain, I was referred to the Team Lead for an interview. The whole process was terse and very professional. Everything was conducted over the phone for the role.

The onboarding process

The onboarding was nothing fancy per se. We shared a welcome email with some flowers and celebratory greetings. And immediately after, the internship started. I was briefed about the work the team was doing for a live project and how I was supposed to help. From day one, I was engaged in primary and secondary data research in the Automotive world. The deadlines for the team were tight and people were very busy.

For in-office internships, interns made use of certain software and subscription-based research services which weren’t possible in this work from home setup. This increased the complexity of tasks at times. I wish my laptop was equipped with an SSD though. At times, with up-to 6-7 excel worksheets in the background with heavy VBA-Macros files, it saw sudden restarts and hang-ups.

I was very lucky that I had genuine MS-Office installed coupled with a 100mbps connection to ease things a bit. Many students in COVID-19 saw their laptops locked up on campuses and the internet dead slow at times. I was fortunate that the infrastructure requirements for this internship at Frost and Sullivan India were good from the beginning on the personal front.

The work culture

I had come across several horrid stories about internship experiences of some B-school students, especially among freshers, including some big MNCs that run in typical unprofessional cultures. But I saw nothing of that sort at Frost. My boss for instance was one gem of a person, very soft-spoken and kind. For a fresher like me, it made me comfortable.

I recall her favorite line throughout the two months -“whenever stuck, call me”. Rarely do people walk the talk. But she was a good teacher. Before this internship at Frost and Sullivan India, my stint with MS-Excel was very limited. I wasn’t very comfortable with the criss-cross of rows and columns with tremendous amounts of data. At times it did feel overwhelming. But my mentor was very helpful. She was even kind enough to give me Excel lessons. I couldn’t have asked for a better learning environment!

My role

My team dealt with forecasting of Electric Vehicle sales in select geographies. The role was to validate existing databases, update on upcoming launches, look into upcoming policy changes in auto companies and new emission laws, etc. It was very deep and insightful. Now that I look back, it was so diverse that I can’t say what I exactly did. But the extremely fast-paced environment kept me on my toes. On some level, I feel this fast pace is needed to learn things. For instance, I learned more Excel in those two months than I ever could during my enrollment in an online class.

Learnings and special moments

The learning outcomes were manifold. But to say that I learned Excel in this internship would be an understatement. What I did learn as a fresher was when to say Yes or No to a task in a professional environment. There are times when passion does take a back seat as deadlines loom over your head. During these times, lending a helping hand to the team is what truly outshines.

At the same time, maintaining a professional and personal life balance is also an important art that I learned during these two months. This internship made me punch above my weight and I am glad that I got a taste of what corporate life is all about in the truest sense through this stint. Even though my internship at Frost and Sullivan India was work from home, it taught me a great deal of patience and soft skill. The learnings were in-fact even more useful for my placement back at IIT. Thanks to this prior experience in the Auto domain, I landed an offer from Volvo Eicher. How things aligned amid this COVID-19 is truly amazing.

All one needs is to believe in themselves!

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Kamal Jassal - IIT (ISM) Dhanbad

2019-2021

A Marketing student in the class of 2021 at the Department of Management Studies, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, he is an automotive enthusiast, budding writer and an incoming Management Trainee at Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles.